The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a system for providing air flow to a sulfur recovery unit.
Fossil fuels, such as coal or petroleum, may be gasified for use in the production of electricity, chemicals, synthetic fuels, or for a variety of other applications. Gasification involves the incomplete combustion of a carbonaceous fuel with limited oxygen at a very high temperature to produce syngas, a fuel containing carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which enables higher efficiency and cleaner emissions than the fuel in its original state.
The gasification process may result in syngas containing undesirable levels of sulfur or other contaminants. A gas cleaning unit may serve to remove a portion of such contaminants prior to combustion of the syngas. For example, the gas cleaning unit may remove sulfur from the syngas in the form of acid gas containing hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The acid gas may be routed to a sulfur recovery unit (SRU) configured to convert the H2S into elemental sulfur. The conversion process may involve reacting the H2S with large quantities of heated and pressurized air within a thermal reactor. Unfortunately, generating the heated and pressurized air flow may utilize large quantities of energy, thereby decreasing the efficiency of the gasification process.